SA-ku-RA
by Light R U Yi
Summary: Naruto and Yamato weren't the only ones who got warped back in time to the previous glory of the Lost Tower. Sakura's personality and spirit also came along, and managed to find herself trapped inside Sara's body. Now Sara has a split personality; Sakura!


"Narutooooo! Nooooo!"

* * *

Waking up with the noon sun hanging high and shining directly down at him, Naruto found himself on a small patch of grass in the middle of nowhere. Or at least until he looked around his surroundings. Tall tower-like buildings loomed over him and there were maybe a hundred of these towers. The towers were all connected with bridges, pipes and all sorts of wires and ropes. There were flags hung on the wires everywhere indicating some sort of festival or holiday. Naruto sat up, dazed, and saw some movement in the distance. Looking carefully, he could see beams of wood mysteriously materializing from the ground and the towers as a man was escaping or dodging a couple of large puppet-like robots. _Yamato?_ One word; one name that fluttered across his mind. _Aw man, is he in trouble?_ With his mind fixed on rescuing his captain, Naruto gets up and dashes off towards the commotion.

"EAT THIS!" Shouting, and clearly not hiding himself like a proper ninja, Naruto jumps from the side of the tower he had just landed on and throws four shurikens towards the robots that are giving Yamato a bit of a hard time. The robots, although not having seen him, dodge the well-timed throwing stars with ease and stop their advance towards Yamato. Instead, they fix their attention towards Naruto but before they make another move, they freeze and then fly off on a different direction as if being called back to their master. Naruto tries to make chase before realizing that his captain might be injured and stops himself in mid-air with a doppelgänger and jumps back down towards the ground where Yamato is. "Captain Yamatoooo! Are you alright?" He yells right before he completely lands.

"I'm fine, I'm fine Naruto. That was perfect timing. I wasn't sure what or who are enemy is and was trying to gain time while figuring out the next best course of action when you showed up," Yamato looked somewhat relieved as he concluded, "but these robotic puppets must have lost their interest in us or the master pupeteer has withdrawn due to your sudden appearance." Yamato seemed to look just as much confused as Naruto was about where they were though, as he anxiously shot glances towards the towers several times.

"Have you seen Sai and Sakura?" Naruto is worried about the whereabouts of his teammates. They've lost touch after that explosion in the lost tower, so if anyone is worried, Naruto is.

"No, you're the first one I've seen after I woke up."

"Captain Yamato, you too?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that, Naruto?

"Oh, it's uh, nothing. I'm just confused about where we are. Ha ha, ha." It's getting hard to even smile as Naruto forces a laugh. Is their mission a failure or is the mission still on?

Yamato looks at Naruto, and consoles him, "Don't worry, the others must be fine. Let's just focus on completing the mission first and then if we have some time, we'll go look for the others."

"Okay!"

* * *

_Tsk, tsk, tsk. __So the brats managed to follow me into the lost tower now, did they? I'll teach them a lesson they'll never forget!_

* * *

The celebrations were underway, but the fanfare seemed more like noise in Sara's ears. As she looked away from the window, she felt a mysterious wind blow into the room. But as soon as it had entered it had left. She didn't dwell on the matter and left the room, towards a lonely place. A place where she could be alone in peace. As she headed through the hidden passageways down to the lower buildings, her conscious was suddenly invaded by an unfamiliar being and she lost control... for a little while.

* * *

"Pant, pant..."

Naruto looked around. It felt like they were lost, or they were going around in circles, or something of the sort. Even Captain Yamato seemed to be running out of breath trying to find the seal. The ruined tower couldn't be found anywhere, especially when there were more than one tower in their current location. Any of these towers could be the tower they were looking for. Naruto thought hard about the size of the tower they originally entered, and searched for a tower of about the same size... to no avail.

"Let's take a break, Naruto."

The two sat down in a nearby shade, away from the scorching sun and took a break. Yamato tried to suggest making a plan, but Naruto seemed to be deeply daydreaming about something so he let out a sigh and decided on a short nap to recover his energy for the next move.

* * *

Upon opening her eyes, Sakura had to strain her eyes to adjust herself to the dark corridor where she sat. _How did I get here?_ She wondered to herself. In the dim lighting of the weakened torches, she realized as she looked down that she was wearing an unfamiliar dress that smelled strongly of royalty. _Wha-? Why am I here? Why am I wearing this?_ She tried to move, but Sakura realized that she could not move as she wanted to. The muscles in her body seemed to be weak, and plump rather than how it should be; hardened and tough enough to break boulders and cause quakes in the ground. _What's wrong with me? Maybe this is just a dream..._ Sakura held up her dress as she walked on towards what she felt was the wind coming from an exit.

Holding up one hand to her head to cover her eyes from the wind and the sudden blinding light and the other hand to steady herself on the wall, Sakura looked out of the gaping exit. A large room lay in ruins, a serene calming wind blowing in from the cracks in the walls. How, if only she could see her reflection somewhere, to get a grasp on what she looked like and why she could not feel nor control the chakra within her body. There were a few dirty puddles here and there, and a steady light streamed from the cracks in the dome-like ceiling of the room.

Feeling abnormally tired beyond the point of standing still, Sakura slumped down at the foot of the tunnel and tried to devise a plan in her head. However, she couldn't really do much thinking as it seemed there was another conscious in her mind. _Ino?_ she thought to herself, as she wondered who was possessing or trying to possess her mind. Within seconds, Sakura drifted off to sleep.


End file.
